The Pines/Fussell House

In the years
leading up to the Civil War, The Kennett Square area was known as “the hotbed
of abolitionism” due to the help many local resident gave to fugitive
slaves. These Underground Railroad
“stationmasters” provided shelter in their homes, called “stations,” and then
secretly moved them along to another station, enroute north or west, to
freedom. One of the most prominent of
these stationmasters was Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, whose house still stands at
the intersection of Baltimore Pike and McFarlan Road in Kennett Township, just
outside of the Borough of Kennett Square, minutes from Longwood Gardens.

Some 2000
fugitive slaves passed through Fusssell’s house, “The Pines” and nearly every
distinguished abolitionist to come to Kennett Square was entertained there at
one time or another. It is one of the
most historic of the more than three dozen Underground Railroad house in the
Kennett Square area, the largest concentration of URR houses in an 8 mile
radius in the country and the “hub of the Underground Railroad.”